Learning Approaches to Personality

1. Learning Approaches to Personality • Basic assumptions: • Changes in behavior occur in predictable ways • Personality is formed by person’s unique history • Objectivity and rigor in testing are crucial • Situational specificity

2. Ivan Pavlov – classical conditioning • Classical conditioning = type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally associated with another stimulus • Digestion in dogs • Tone = neutral stimulus (became conditioned stimulus)

3. Classical conditioning Two necessary conditions: • Reflexive response • Stimulus that elicits response must be associated in time and place with another stimulus • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) • Unconditioned response (UCR) • Conditioned stimulus (CS) • Conditioned response (CR)

4. Classical conditioning extended • Discrimination – being able to tell stimuli apart (i.e. discriminate) • Generalization – responding to different stimuli in a similar way • These two processes are complementary • Extinction • Higher order conditioning – CS-CR pair can serve as an UCS-UCR for more classical conditioning

5. Emotional conditioning = classical conditioning in which the CRs are emotional reactions • Accounts for likes and dislikes, preferences and biases from this perspective

6. Phobias • Phobia = intense fear that is not justified • Systematic desensitization • Extinction • Role of avoidance • Counterconditioning Step 1: taught to relax body (incompatible “emotion) Step 2: develop anxiety hierarchy Step 3: relax completely, visualize lowest item on hierarchy, allow anxiety to dissipate Step 4: move to next level and repeat